Cornelia
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#1: Cornelia Author: Rachael,  PostPosted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:27 am

Please discuss Corney here ...

 

#2: Cornelia Author: Guest,  PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:56 pm

I've always found that Cornelia's transformation from most-evil-pupil-the-school-has-ever-seen to Jolly Good Egg stretches credibility, even by EBD standards. After all, all that happens is that she gets trapped in a cave with a maniac - contrast eg Stacie, who nearly dies on the mountainside and then has to spend a year lying on her back.I think it's easy to forget that in Head Girl she's not just naughty but actively unpleasant: the other middles find her self-centred, deceitful and dishonourable (even though in ?Exploits - or maybe Lintons - we are told that she 'never lies'! Then, of course, she becomes largely indististinguishable from Evadne. I wonder if the reason EBD made Cornelia age so slowly was so that she could get rid of Evadne and have only one token Yank?

 

#3:  Author: Nicci, Location: UK PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:05 pm

I find the above post pretty interesting - it being a COMPLETELY different perspective to my own. I always liked Cornelia but I'm now wondering if I missed some major character flaws - was she really so unpleasant at times? Whoever you are guest, could you give me some examples of what you mean please - ie. examples of scenes where she came across like this to you? And what on earth did she do when she was Head Girl? Confused But back onto her character - admittedly to begin with I did tend to confuse her and Evvy, but that changed after a while. I thought once she settled in she was funny, bright and orginal. The one thing that's always puzzled me is the whole Mademoiselle thing - but that's already been discussed on another thread. ETA: looking back at the previous post again, I have to say that I think ben dragged into the bowels of the earth my a madman was a pretty terrifying and life-changing experience. And the number of times it's referred to afterwards as being a memory that Corney really can't shake off - I don't see why its any different to Stacie's accident. oh, and while I'm on the subject (I promise I'll shut up after this) one of my fave bits out of the Salt Caves thing was the discussion about God and death etc. Can't remember the exact thing now. Will post it in a min. ETA 2: Aha, found it: it's that 'death is just falling asleep to wake up with God' bit. Madge says this to the girls several chapters earlier in reference to someone who's died or is dying, and Joey and Grizel remember it when they are in the caves.

Last edited by Nicci on Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:22 pm; edited 1 time in total

 

#4:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:21 pm

I'm not guest, but here are some examples: She was calmly impudent to the prefects (not the first or last to do that) After a row with Jo, she is determined to get her own back and fosters plans for revenge (why is it always Jo who inspires this desire for revenge?) She pinches Simone so hard that she cries She tells lies (according to Amy) and cheats She answers the mistresses back with impertinence (again, not the first or last girl to do that) Liz

 

#5:  Author: Nicci, Location: UK PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:36 pm

LizB wrote:
After a row with Jo, she is determined to get her own back and fosters plans for revenge (why is it always Jo who inspires this desire for revenge?)
*g* it does seem a familiar theme!!
LizB wrote:
She pinches Simone so hard that she cries
Bizarrely, I don't remember ever reading this. Is this in HG?
LizB wrote:
She tells lies (according to Amy) and cheats
This rings a bell, but I can't remember when it was. I thought maybe it was to do with that poem Amy wrote but then I remembered it was Grizel who didn't believe her. Thanks for the help Liz. I must say, I think I'm going to have to revise my opinion of Miss Flower!!

 

#6: Cornelia Author: guest,  PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:45 pm

I'm thinking of her earliest appearances in Head Girl, which I read recently (though not recently enough to quote absolutely precisely). Having always thought of her as rather fun if irrepressible, I was surprised to see her handled so negatively. There's a scene where she pinches another girl in the Speisesaal, and the girl (can't remember who - Maria Marani?) is in considerable pain but heroically doesn't give the game away there's a conversation between a group of girls who announce that they don't like Cornelia because she tells lies - I'll look out the book when I get home! I'm afraid I was largely being flippant about the maniac - though Cornelia *does* remain pretty unperturbed during the ordeal (much calmer than her rescuers).

 

#7:  Author: Helen C, Location: Sheffield/Luton PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:52 pm

She wasn't like that after Head Girl though it was all maybe the transformation was a bit dramatic but then there must be other examples of that happening in the series. Can't think of any of the top of my head.

 

#8:  Author: jennifer, Location: Sunny California PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:52 pm

Helen C wrote:
She wasn't like that after Head Girl though it was all maybe the transformation was a bit dramatic but then there must be other examples of that happening in the series. Can't think of any of the top of my head.
She's one of the most dramatic - going from fairly nasty at first (she plays some fairly nasty practical jokes as well) to naughty but likeable for the rest of the series, ending in a responsible prefectship. Otherwise, the best comparison I can think of are Juliet - impudent and disobedient to model of decorum in one fell swoop Eustacia - poorly socialised, stuck up and very self righteous to a very nice girl in one accident Other sudden reforms are Jessica Wayne and Naomi Elton (both fixed by Mary-Lou), but there it was a flaw in character rather than disobedience. Other girls who are introduced as 'bad girls' in need of a good Chalet change of heart are Emerence Hope, Joyce Linton, Yseult Pertwee, Joan Baker, Grizel Cochrane- moderate reforms but still aren't completely converted. Betty Wynne Davies, Thekla Stift, Diana Skelton - unredeemed Lavender Leigh, Annis Lovell- reform and fade into the background Elizabeth Arnett, Cornelia Flower, Juliet Carrick, Jack Lambert - turn into responsible headgirls There are other cases where a girl has trouble fitting in, but doesn't make a total nuisance of herself (Prunella, Richenda, etc) I found Cornelia more distinctive than Evadne, possibly due to the vivid physical descriptions. She does strike me as the kind fo personality that could go from a fairly obnoxious adolescent to a pretty neat adult, given the right training - one of those people who has to grow into their personality, and who has more than the usual number of growing pains. The transformation from Head Girls to later books is a bit of a jump, but if you exclude the initial descriptions of her, her transformation from middle to senior is fairly natural (she actually matures better than Joey does).

 

#9:  Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:16 pm

I have always liked Cornelia - she does change but not so dramatically as some girls do. I think we see her grow from a spoilt little girl into a responsible young woman without too much interference from Jo but would have like to see more of the importance of Mademoiselle in her life. I wonder what her life was like before school? Just her and her dad did she really want to go the school? Or was she missing him so much that she thought her bad behaviour would get her sent home?

 

#10:  Author: Nicci, Location: UK PostPosted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:20 pm

Isn't it Cornelia who replaces Maria Marani as HG after the plane crash and news of her father's death? Thinking back to that, I remember really liking her - I thought she she had a difficult job at a difficult time, and she suceeded.

 

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